The Burning Man

3

The holding cell in the Heathrow Security Annexe was painted magnolia, even the reinforced steel blast door. There was one bench and no windows. The strip light glared, and there was a faint electronic hum that set the nerves on edge.

‘Any other good plans, Church-dude?’ Laura nursed the back of her head where blood caked her blonde hair.

‘Stop whining. I don’t hear you suggesting anything constructive,’ Ruth snapped. A puffy bruise was growing just beneath her left eye.

‘Ah, shut up. Let’s face it — we never had a chance. A handful of people against the world? Like we were actually going to achieve anything.’

‘Why don’t you join Shavi? Do us all a favour.’ Ruth nodded to Shavi who sat cross-legged in one corner, deep in meditation.

‘Stop fighting,’ Church ordered. ‘If Mallory, Sophie and Caitlin did their job, we still have a chance of getting away.’

‘You’re expecting a last-minute rescue?’ Laura said sullenly. ‘I don’t want to burst your bubble, but I wouldn’t trust those three to find their own arses in a dark room.’

Ruth sat next to Church. ‘This might be the last we see of each other,’ she said quietly. ‘They’re going to split us up, ship us off to Belmarsh, the full terrorist route. It’s not fair. We only just found each other again.’

Church took her hand. He was still searching for some meaningful words when the heavy lock rang out and the door swung open. Two armed and helmeted policemen flanked a senior officer. He still wore his flak jacket, but he had left his helmet behind. He was in his forties with silvery hair, and though his gaze was cold and steady, occasionally a tremor disturbed his features, an involuntary facial tic that Church had seen before. There was a faint disconnectedness about him, too, the result of his mind trying to process twin thought-tracks — his own and that of the spider that was doubtless embedded somewhere in his body.

‘Get up,’ he said. ‘You’re going on a short ride. We need to get you fitted for cuffs and leg-irons.’ Though there was no obvious sign in the officer’s words, Church was certain that none of them would be reaching their destination.

The men levelled their weapons for emphasis. Church and Ruth stood up. Laura gently stirred Shavi. When he stretched, he turned his good eye to Church and blinked slowly, a knowing sign that puzzled Church.

Ruth and Laura looked to Church. He nodded to them to proceed.

‘That’s right, be clever,’ the officer said.

Behind the police, a figure loomed. ‘All right, stand down. I don’t know — give boys guns and there’s always trouble.’ Hunter flashed his credentials to the senior officer, who was clearly taken aback.

‘Commander Hunter? This is a police operation-’

‘Of course it is. That’s why it’s about to go pear-shaped.’ He nodded to the two armed men. ‘All right, clear off.’

The two men looked uncertainly at the senior officer. He was confused, but quickly tried to regain his authority.

Hunter cut him off. ‘Let’s not do this in front of your boys.’

The senior officer motioned for the men to leave and Hunter shut the door behind them.

‘What’s all this about?’ the senior officer asked.

Hunter pressed a small black box against the senior officer’s arm. There was a blue flash and the senior officer fell to the ground, unconscious. Hunter held up the box. ‘Government-issue taser. Good for every occasion.’

‘Found your conscience, then?’ Laura said.

‘Funny, when I pictured this in my head it involved you throwing your arms around my neck and smothering me with kisses of gratitude.’

‘Get us out of here and I might just do that. But don’t start thinking it actually means something.’

‘Heaven forfend.’ He dragged the senior officer into the corner, out of sight of the door. ‘Do exactly what I say. We’ll pick up those guards in the corridor and go out through security, where we’ll collect your sword and spear. Then to the vehicle compound where there’s an armoured prisoner transit waiting. Don’t look at me. Don’t talk to me. Act sullenly — should come natural to you lot. We’ve got to move fast. We won’t have much time to cover the trail.’

‘Okay,’ Church said. ‘And thanks.’

‘It’s a job. I always do things to the best of my ability.’

Hunter’s credentials commanded surprising weight as they breezed through security. In the vehicle compound, the guards herded Church, Ruth, Shavi and Laura into the back of the armoured transit and Hunter drove it past the final security checkpoint towards the M4.

‘I’ll expect those kisses shortly,’ Hunter shouted back through the wire mesh between the driver’s cab and the back of the van.

‘It’ll be a life-altering experience. Hope you’re up to it,’ Laura replied.

‘What changed your mind?’ Church asked Hunter.

‘The realisation that I really have no choice.’

‘You are very cool under pressure,’ Shavi said. ‘To walk into the heart of the Enemy’s territory … amazing.’

‘I don’t expect I’ll be able to get away with that again. Next time my charismatic and sexy face will be alongside your mugshots.’

‘Where are we going?’ Ruth asked.

‘To swap vehicles so we can’t be traced. Take a breather, it’s not far.’

Church settled back next to Shavi. ‘You knew something like this was going to happen.’

‘I feel myself awakening, like an orchid in the sun.’ Shavi gave a faint, warming smile. ‘Within me, there are vast depths. Once before I tapped them, and I will do so again.’

‘Do what you can. You’re our seer, Shavi. You can see things that we can’t. We need that advantage.’

Soon after, Hunter pulled the transit into Heston Services where he abandoned it for a brand-new white van.

‘I know they can still track us, but I’m not going to make it easy for them.’ He urged Church to sit in the front with him. Once they were back on the motorway, he said, ‘What’s the strategy?’

‘We need to get to Scandinavia.’ Church described his encounter with Robin Goodfellow. ‘But that’s all I’ve got. Now that we’re officially terrorists I don’t see how we can even get out of the country.’

‘Don’t worry about that. Scandinavia, eh? Can we try to narrow it down to at least a thousand square miles?’

‘I’m working on it.’

Hunter thought for a moment. ‘Maybe we need to cause our own terrorist outrage. Blow somewhere up. Distract the security services.’

‘That’s not what we stand for,’ Church said.

‘I thought we stood for winning.’ Hunter eyed Church with faint bemusement.

‘We’re symbols, too. You know that?’

A thoughtful pause; a nod.

‘We have to be true to what we represent or we’re nothing.’

Hunter didn’t reply, but a faint smile teased his lips all the way to Membury Services where the early afternoon sun was starting to break through a bank of grey clouds. Hunter pulled in next to another identical white van. ‘There’s someone waiting to see you,’ he said to Church.

In the restaurant, Tom was sitting in a corner drinking coffee. He was older than the last time Church had encountered him in the flesh, but he still had the same unmistakable aura of intensity.

Overcome with joy at seeing his old friend again, Church walked quickly to the table. But instead of an emotional reunion, Tom surveyed him with cold eyes flecked with tears.

‘What’s wrong?’ Church asked, shocked.

‘Sit down.’

As Church pulled up a chair, Tom leaned in, his voice trembling with restrained passion. ‘What in heaven’s name have you done?’

Deep in Tom’s eyes there was a haunted intensity that shook Church. ‘I don’t understand-’

Tom gripped Church’s wrist. ‘I should be dead,’ he hissed through clenched teeth. ‘I know it … I can see it with the cursed vision that witch from under the hill gave me. I see two lives running parallel: one here, another where I’m moving across the Grim Lands and into the beyond. I ask you again: what have you done?’

‘I changed reality. To save you, and Niamh and all of the Tuatha De Danann.’

‘How?’

‘I don’t know if I can explain it. At the time it was like a dream. When I lay in the casket in the Far Lands in the Sleep Like Death, it felt as if I went to another place … where there was a Caretaker … and two other beings who claimed they were close to some higher power.’ The memories were hazy, and the more Church tried to recall them, the more they slipped from his grasp. ‘The Caretaker took me to something he called the Axis of Existence, and he told me that if I shifted it I could change what had happened-’

‘You bloody idiot.’ Tom covered his face, shaking silently. ‘Do you know what it’s like to feel alive and dead at the same time?’

‘I’m sorry. I just didn’t want you to sacrifice yourself-’

‘It’s not just me!’ Tom snapped. ‘You’re not a god. To do such a thing, with no concept of the repercussions-’ He caught himself. ‘Nothing is created. Nothing is destroyed. There is only what is, all connected. To change one thing changes everything.’

Church weighed Tom’s words, the burden of his distress. ‘What have I done?’

‘I don’t know. That’s just it! There is a puzzle on sale in the city — a glass ball encased in a network of string tied to wooden rods. The aim is to remove the glass ball by shifting the rods until a large enough hole appears in the network. But every time you move one rod, the string attached to it shifts another rod, and so on, so that the network continually shifts, confounding any attempts to create a hole. Do you see?’

‘So by altering events to save your life-’

‘The network shifted in other places. Perhaps someone lost their life who never should have. Perhaps something terrible has happened, or is happening now. Perhaps …’ He flapped a weary hand and covered his face again.

‘I only wanted to save you, Tom.’

‘Good intentions in the hands of an idiot are a dangerous weapon.’ He looked deep into Church’s eyes. ‘Nothing else to do now but deal with the situation you’ve given us. Are you up to it?’

‘I’ve kept my head above water so far.’

‘Just. Remarkable, considering you didn’t have me to act as your common sense.’

Church was distracted by the sudden darkening of the sky through the window. The ravens descended on the service station, briefly blotting out the sun.

‘The Morvren,’ Tom said. ‘They follow death and destruction, and supernatural terror.’

‘They appear to be following me.’ Church recalled what he had been told two thousand years earlier about the ravens, symbols of death, following in his wake.

‘I think,’ Tom said, ‘we should not be sitting around debating any longer.’